'Ken Dedes': Refreshing touch on gender power plays

'Ken Dedes': Refreshing touch on gender power plays

By Yogita Tahil Ramani

JAKARTA (JP): A movie screen descended at one point in the
modern dance-drama Ken Dedes, projecting a hand penning a poetic
message.

"She rises from a monument," it read. "On the way to her
destiny, she scatters frangipani on land, smelling as sweet as
her perfume. She rises from a monument, and walks towards her
tomb, following the old winding road of Ken Dedes."

It brims with symbolism of gender power plays -- the monument
signifying female submissiveness, the flowers equated with death.

Those directly behind the production, performed last week at
the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta, were choreographer Rusdy Rukmarata
and his wife, production manager Aiko Rukmarata, from Eksotika
Karmawibhangga Indonesia (EKI) dance company.

The performance is modeled around women manipulating men,
often through feminine wiles, to achieve status in society, and
later lording their power by treading on other men. To women's
advantage, they can often mask their actions by playing one off
against the other.

In one act, Ken Dedes (Takako Leen) writhes wantonly as though
possessed, while her casanova lover, Tunggul Ametung (Edmund G.
Gaerlan), watches from a distance. They are shadowed by a black
pedestal where tongue-wagging women wait desperately to be
singled out, and men bang their hands lustily, egging him on. He
allows her to become the contemporary boardroom queen and
socialite in return for sexual favors and servility.

She later takes a new lover, Ken Arok (Gede Juliantara), as
her former beau has seemingly been traumatized into homosexuality
at the shock of seeing the empowered woman.

Aiko discussed the concepts. "Disparities are so overwhelming,
they (women) are not even cynical anymore about hopping from one
bed to another. They either define it as a corporate-ladder
survival mechanism or just being modern. Most even enjoy it."

Rusdy offered that perhaps women were forced by circumstance
to assume the roles. "Can we blame them? There are no definite
answers to the question, just a very disturbing phenomena that we
have put forward in this manner for public awareness."

Born in Bandung 35 years ago, Rusdy mastered classical ballet
and traditional Indonesian dancing, earning a scholarship to
study dancing at the London Contemporary Dance School in 1985.

He gives character to his performances. There is the
disciplined rigid classicism people so often attribute to ballet
dancing, but with enough leeway to allow talented performers like
Takako to emote with fervor and individualism.

"The concepts are abstract in reality. What we have performed
on stage is the idealistic version," said Takako.

Submissive

"It is straightforward really. Women have always been
submissive. They were brought up in a man's world, just like Ken
Dedes. They know that physical attributes can get them
everywhere. So they use them."

She believed that women assume the domineering roles of men
with higher status.

"Once they do, they have the upper hand. The whole concept of
this performance is that women, instead of being her own self,
chooses to dominate the man. She chooses to be just like him.
Why? Literally, both genders have adopted the "chicken and egg"
theory. Both genders do not want to relent to bettering
themselves."

Rusdy added his perception to this: "The woman can rise above
the man, through her intuitiveness and maturity. But she chooses
to be just like the man, vile and vindictive.

"She can be the independent thinker she so rightly deserves
and needs to be in a globalized era as this. But she chooses to
resent the man. How could one be independent, if the "man" factor
is still involved?"

The interfusion of painter and photographer Firman Ichsan's
contemporary works and background settings with music director G.
Djaduk Ferianto's operatic incantation gave for dynamic big-city
images and was almost moving in its frenzied way.

Creating a stagnant, eerie, sometimes morbid but captivating
mood was narration by shadow puppetmaster Ki Hadi Sudjiwo Tejo.
It was lyrical and heavy with romanticism despite the
performance's dose of cynicism.

Rusdy said the concept of Ken Dedes in his mind was still
incomplete. "Just as I am still looking for a justified ending,
women out there are still tethering to lies to find desired
endings."

There were a number of opening acts, a couple of which were
exceptional. Dapithaton, or When the Sun Sets, is the story about
aging lovers at a park reminiscing about when they were young. It
was performed by Rita Dewi and modern dance instructor at EKI
Edmund Gaerlan. Choreographed by Edmund, it also featured Rusdy's
parents, Max and Sonja Rukmarata.

Another was The Break In/Cleo's Apartment, where a forever-
unsatisfied abstruse couple entangled in a sexual relationship
confuse it with a loving, meaningful one. Dancers were Takako,
Lilies, Siswanto Kodrata and Hendy Leonathan. Rusdy explained
that the dance explored the confusion between love and lust,
which ultimately leads to disappointment and dejection.